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Friday, December 17, 2010

Crepe Sew-Along #6: Don't Forget to Pre-Treat Your Fabric!

Hey all! Just a quick little post today. I'm going to be showing you how to cut out your underlining and fabric this weekend, but before I get to that, one crucial step: pre-treating your fabric. For cottons, this essentially means laundering your fabric as you intend to care for it as a finished garment.

I'm a big fan of hand-washing my handmade clothing, and for this I use a product called Soak. It's a gentle detergent that doesn't require any rinsing. So you just fill up a tub (I use a small plastic storage bin) with cool water, add a dollop of Soak, and immerse your fabric. Swish it around gently, and leave it sitting for about 10 minutes. Dump out all the water. Roll your fabric up in a bath towel and squeeze out the excess water. Hang your fabric to dry. Once it's dry, you can press it with a steam iron. (Always test your fabric to see how it reacts to pressing; you may need a press cloth if it's sensitive to high heats. Cottons are generally easy to press, though.)

You can also handwash using a detergent (baby shampoo also works well for delicates), but you'll have to rinse it well to get any soap residue out.

If you plan to machine wash your garment, put your fabric through the same cycle you will use on your dress. Serge, zigzag, or pink the cut edges of your fabric before washing to avoid fraying and tangling.

That's pretty much it! A couple more posts to read on pre-treating if you're interested: one I wrote earlier this year, and a great one from Colette Patterns' blog.

How's everyone doing? Feeling ready to cut out? Or still working on muslins?

Yup - still muslining. Version 2 should get done today but I have a nasty feeling that Something Will Have To Be Done To The Darts.

I have not found it problematic per se - it just requires a lot of thinking and puzzling - especially what to do with the dart when a side seam is now on a slant due to grading between sizes. That bit made me weep.Still, this is why I signed up for the project - I wouldn't have dreamed of doing this solo.

@Karin re: "Just curious, why use detergent at all since the fabric isn't dirty?"The fabric might have Sizing on it maybe? Washing out the sizing changes the drape & hand of the fabric - it'll be a bit more fluid & drapey than before it was washed.

Still working on fitting. I'm using fit for real people, so I'm tissue fitting before I make another muslin. I want to make sure that I have it right before I cut five yards of fabric. I am having some trouble, especially understanding the sway back alteration. I've blogged about my progress on my blog: sewingbythebook.com. If you have any suggestions, I would really appreciate it! I plan to work on fitting some more after work tonight, although I'm afraid that I'm falling behind.

Still muslining here, too. I've come to the same conclusion as Lin2Too: Something Has To Be Done With The Darts. In my case, I've redone the front ones already and am thinking some kind of modified fisheye-frankendart needs to be created for the back. So it goes...

I believe that rinsing alone will remove sizing. I was once told to prepare a muslin presscloth by rinsing it several times in cold water. I was told not to use soap because that would only introduce new chemicals. I was using the presscloth moist with a hot iron to press seams on the right side of a wool jacket.

I've always read that one should use the method one intends to employ after the garment is completed. I usually use baby shampoo. I always rinse.

Just finished my 2nd muslin and am pretty happy with it. I had to go down a whole size plus do more or less the entire same alterations that Gertie did to her muslin. I also moved the bust darts down and altered the waist darts for a more flattering bustline. Thanks Gertie for the tutorial on the last point. It's literally changed my life! Jane x

Steffie, don't put fusibles in the washing machine!!!! The glue will melt and become a mess. I pre-shrink with steam as I'm applying it, more on that later. I believe you can also just give it a soak in cool water and hang to dry, but I've never done it that way.

Karin, interesting question! My best answer is that part of the point of pre-treating is to get your fabric to have the same hand and drape that it will post-laundering, so you aren't in for any surprises. Detergent will affect the hand of fabric, usually making it softer and drapier.

stephanie, what's going on with your shoulders? Is it the linebacker look? You might just need to take them up a smidge, or change the curved line of the shoulder seam to a straighter line.

The Better Homes and Gardens Sewing book recommends soaking interfacing in cold water for a minute and hanging it to dry. I used that method on my vintage Butterick top and it works. Of course I now only use fusible KNIT interfacing though. I haven't tried it with regular interfacing, which I don't like.

It's not necessary to wash the fabric...I just get it nice and wet and let it line dry...even that will pre-shrink it so even a spin in the dryer isn't essential. Do the same thing for fusible interfacing.

I'm still working on fitting, too. I haven't actually "done" any tweaking to muslin 2, just been thinking & planning for the next one. I'm alright with falling a bit behind, as long as I get a decent fit. :)

Hi GertieI have just posted up my 5th muslin and have decided that whilst it's not perfect, it's good enough :) I have already prewashed my fabric - I tend to do it as I buy fabric (that'll be most of the time then!!), so I'm all ready and set to start cutting. By the way, I wish you were a sewing teacher here, come to the UK!!!

Still working on my muslin--I am totally stumped by the back, which is way too big. And the shoulders, which just look all wrong. Any suggestions on how to fix these two problems? I am ndjillybean in the flickr pool, if you want to see what is wrong...

I've been too busy also - work is wearing me out! Plan to do muslin this weekend..Of course, if the Senate doesn't pass another continuing resolution before Tuesday at midnight, I'll have lots of time to sew...no paycheck, but oh well....the joys of being a fed...

I'm trying to decide whether I need to line my dress or not, its not really see through and its black. But I would like to line the skirt to give it a bit of weight. Would I have a major problem if I lined the skirt but not the bodice?